Escherichia coli – a friendly and ubiquitous bacterial resident in the guts of humans and other animals – may occasionally colonize regions outside the intestines. There, it can have serious consequences for health, some of them lethal.

In a new study conducted in assistant professor Melha Mellata’s lab in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, lead author Alyssa K. Stacy and her colleagues examine one such bacterial adversary, Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC).

The research, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida, Gainesville, appears in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE.